How A Country Doctor Cured People Through Persuasion Debriefed
In this issue:
- The seed that sprouts the sale …
- Five steps to obliterating the price objection …
- When hard becomes easy …
- I bet you didn’t know this about book titles …
- And more!
Dear Web Business Builder,
If you’re just joining us, this week I’m debriefing last week’s discussion of Milton Erickson’s teaching tales. Thanks to everyone who posted a comment and shared their insights.
From the responses, I can see that many of you are already familiar with Erickson, probably through the work of John Grinder and Richard Bandler who codified Erickson’s (and other noted therapists) techniques into a process known as NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming).
Still more of you are probably familiar with Anthony Robbins, who with the help of Guthey Renker commercialized NLP for mucho moolah via late night infomercials. So it’s not surprising that some of you describe Erickson’s techniques in NLP terms …
Bob Clarke writes:
“Dr. Erickson always "joined" his clients in their model of the world. Entered the conversation they were having in their head.”
There is a difference between the world and our perception of it. Human beings do not operate in the world directly. Each of us creates a representation of our world – a map or model through which we interact with reality. And this map determines to a large degree what our experience of the world will be … what choices we will be able to see and make as we live our lives … and the behaviors we will adopt.
Regardless of what it is you’re selling, your prospects are thinking certain things about the problems they are trying to solve, and the opportunities they hope to exploit. And that means they also have feelings about those things. Taken together, these thoughts and feelings comprise their model of the world as it relates to your product or service. If your headline and opening copy fail to instantly harmonize with that model, your copy will fall on deaf ears.
To try and impose your own model of the world on another in an attempt to influence them doesn’t work. As Bob puts it, you must enter the conversation that’s taking place inside their heads, or they simply won’t hear a word you say. You might as well be speaking another language. As a copywriter, if you can join your prospects in their model of the world, and then gradually extend and mold that model to where you need it to be, you can make more sales.
But there’s more to the story.
The seed that sprouts the sale …
When you join your prospects in their model of the world, you are validating their value as human beings. You are telling them they are right, and that what they are thinking and feeling is important. You are displaying your empathy and building up their self-image. The same occurs when you allow your prospects to take ownership of the conclusions you make through the artful use of questions, as Erickson did in the teaching tales. Why is this so important?
The self-image is the key to selling. People buy things because they see those things helping them to enhance their self-image, although few will admit it, and even fewer realize it. If you’re honest with yourself, you’ll see this is true. Think about the last house or car or piece of clothing you bought, and try to remember the thoughts and feelings you experienced at the point of purchase.
If you’re human, you imagined what people would be thinking about YOU as they watched you pull up in that new car …about how impressed – even jealous – your friends and family would be when they came to visit YOU in your new home for the first time … and how strangers would respect YOU when they saw the distinctive style of the clothes you were wearing.
Or maybe you were in denial, busying your mind with common sense reasons why you should have that new car, house, or piece of clothing. None the less, you felt pretty good about yourself, didn’t you? Trust me, your ego was working overtime. You just didn’t know it.
We’re all junkies when it comes to things that we believe will make us feel better about who we are. We all want to feel important, appreciated, recognized, and admired. When you join your prospects in their model of the world, you give them a little fix of these things, and they want more. If getting more means spending money, well so be it. The more tangible you can make the promised satisfaction of these self esteem needs in your copy, the more money they’ll spend.
Jeff Campbell writes:
“Milton Erickson used in all three cases a technique known as "Reframing".
This is where someone like Erickson changes the emotional viewpoint or setting in which a situation is experienced by placing it in another "frame" which suits the facts in a similar way.
It is commonly used by therapists to get patients out of a "rut" when they constantly hold a particular point of view which is causing them distress or harm.
For example the little girl biting her nails soon changed her point of reference from it being cool to it becoming a chore. That was enough to get her to stop the nail biting.”
If we can find a new frame of reference for our experience, the world literally becomes a different place. Or as the bard of Avon put it:
For there is nothing either good or bad,
but thinking makes it so …
Erickson helped his patients to see a more useful and empowering map of their world. Nail biting was reframed from cool to chore … flatulence was reframed from a source of shame and embarrassment to a form of worship … and thinking you’re Jesus Christ was reframed as being well, crazy.
Can you use reframing in copy? Oh yeah! It is the cornerstone of the craft. Your job as a copywriter is to get people to frame the purchase of your product in such a way that its price is dwarfed by their perception of the rewards it brings them. Yes, there are as many places to use reframing in copy as Carter has little liver pills.
Let me give you just a few examples to get your creative juices flowing …
Expensive to Inexpensive – As Ben Graham (one of Warren Buffet’s mentors) is famous for saying, “price is what you pay, value is what you get.” Spending money is the downside of buying things for many people. In their model of the world, spending money means having less of it, and that conjures up all kinds of negative mental images. Less security. More obligations, if they’re buying on credit. And so on.
One way to reframe this perception when it comes time to reveal price is to never refer to your product’s price. Instead, reframe your prospect’s negative perceptions about spending money by calling the price an investment.
Second, suggest the investment is small. “Your investment? Surprisingly low – just $5000.”
Third, compare and contrast. Focus your prospect on a more costly alternative first. “As you’ve seen, until now, business process automation this sophisticated and easy to use cost over $100,000 to implement. But with our new application service provider model, your total investment is surprisingly low – just $5,000.”
Fourth, never state the investment by its lonesome. Always remind your prospect of the return he gets from the investment in the same breath. Carrying on from the above, “ … your total investment is surprisingly low – just $5,000. You get a turnkey system for automating your entire operation that will easily save you having to hire at least two employees at a cost of $60,000 a year as your business grows. That’s a whopping $55,000 annual return on your investment!”
Fifth, trivialize the investment. “Imagine, for less than the cost of benefits for one employee – about $14 a day – you’re all set to grow your business for the foreseeable future without headaches, and without hassle.”
Do you think reframing a $5000 cost into a $14 a day investment that saves the prospect $55,000 a year will increase sales? Does the pope wear a beanie?
Hard to Easy – Another sales killing frame is “it’s too hard”. People seem to reflexively rebel against anything that sounds like work. Funny how that is …
In Breakthrough Advertising, published by Boardroom Books, and available in THE TOTAL PACKAGE bookstore, Gene Schwartz gives a few great examples of this type of reframing. Gene, of course, was writing copy long before NLP and called the process “redefinition.”
One of the examples in Breakthrough Advertising is taken right out of Max Sackheim’s famous ad, Do You Make These Mistakes in English. Gene points out that prospects for Sherwin Cody’s course – while they wanted to become “cultured” and well spoken – were convinced it was too difficult. Sackheim’s ad redefined the process of turning bad English into good English – from hard to easy.
Here’s how he did it:
Only 15 Minutes A Day
Nor is there very much to learn. In Mr. Cody’s years of experimenting, he brought to light some highly astonishing facts about English.
For instance, statistics show that a list of sixty-nine words (with their repetitions) make up more than half of all our speech and letter writing. Obviously, if we could learn to spell, use and pronounce these words correctly, we would go far toward eliminating incorrect spelling and pronunciations.
Similarly, Mr. Cody proved that there were no more than one dozen fundamental principles of punctuation. If we mastered these principles, there would be no bugbear of punctuation to hamper us in our writing.
Finally he discovered that twenty-five typical errors in grammar constitute nine-tenths of our everyday mistakes. When one has learned how to avoid these twenty-five pitfalls, how readily one can obtain the facility of speech which denotes the person of breeding and education!
When the study of English is made so simple, it becomes clear that progress can be made in a very short time. No more than fifteen minutes a day is required …
Person to Thing – I was thumbing through a copy of J. Haldeman Julius’ The First Hundred Million the other day, and I am now reminded of what a great example of reframing it is. For those of you who don’t know, Julius was a publisher who sold books for 5 cents a piece through mail order in the 1920s – yes hundreds of millions of them.
When a book failed to sell 10,000 copies or more per year, it was removed from offer and sent to the “hospital”, were Julius personally attempted to resuscitate it. What happened at the hospital?
Julius reframed people’s perception of the book by giving it a new title. Sometimes, all it took to dramatically increase sales of a particular book was to give it a new name.
Over the years Julius began to notice patterns. One of the surprising things he noticed was that his prospects were far more interested in what a person has done than they were in the person who done it.
And Introduction to Einstein sold 15,000 copies. The same book, when renamed Einstein’s Theory Of Relativity Explained sold 42,000.
Nietzsche: Who He Was, And What He Stood For barely sold 10,000 copies. The same book renamed, The Story Of Nietzsche’s Philosophy sold 45,000 copies.
The Truth About Mussolini sold 15,000 copies. The same book renamed, The Facts About Fascism sold 24,000 copies.
Something to think about the next time you title something. The First Hundred Million is available from Twipress.
Final to Tentative – One last important example. You can dramatically increase your sales by reframing a purchase as tentative versus final. Avoid asking your prospects to buy or decide. Instead, invite them to try and decide later. Of course, it’s your guarantee that makes this possible.
Don’t even use the word purchase until after they’ve bought. Use fun sounding verbs like claim, reserve, grab, nab, snap up, or something similarly harmless instead. And then make sure your order form is named anything but. Call it a Risk Free Trial Certificate, or a Review Copy Certificate, or one of my favorites, Free Gift Certificate and watch your sales soar!
Like a magician, your slight of hand as a copywriter is all about where you place your readers attention. Joining your prospects in their model of the world and then gently reframing their perception is your stock in trade.
Until next time, Good Selling!
Daniel Levis
Editor, The Web Marketing Advisor
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
Daniel Levis is a top marketing consultant & direct response copywriter based in Toronto, Canada and publisher of the world famous copywriting anthology Masters of Copywriting featuring the selling wisdom of 44 of the “Top Money” marketing minds of all time, including Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, Joe Sugarman, John Carlton, Joe Vitale, Michel Fortin, Richard Armstrong and dozens more! For a FREE excerpt visit http://www.Sellingtohumannature.com
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– Clayton
Comment by David — September 19, 2007 @ 7:12 am
He continualy agreed with them and then moved them forward a small step that would help them realize on their own what the next action would be. They eventually \”solved\” their own challenge.
Comment by Robert Woodring — September 19, 2007 @ 7:17 am
I think he presented evidence that they would accept and draw conclusions that he wanted. In other words they sold themselves.
Comment by Danny — September 19, 2007 @ 7:25 am
He led them to understand how silly/mistaken/wrong they were by having them reframe
their own perceptions
and not by making them feel silly or humiliated.
Comment by Rod — September 19, 2007 @ 7:32 am
He listened first to hear where they were in their mindset. After determining that, he then worked from that mindset to lead them to their own conclusion about how to solve the issue each patient was afflicted with.
Comment by Chris — September 19, 2007 @ 7:33 am
The good Doctor agrees with them at first, allows them wallow in the depths of that choice.
Then introduces a new idea after they\’ve absorbed the old idea completely. The choice is a way out, they grab it and run.
Simple.
So why don\’t other head-docs employ this method?
Comment by Geoff Dodd — September 19, 2007 @ 7:33 am
In each case Milton Erickson empathised with the person and went along with what they wanted to do. He then \’flooded\’ the person with too much of that behavior so that it naturally subsided into a re-balance of normality.
Comment by Geoff Dodd — September 19, 2007 @ 7:33 am
In each case Milton Erickson empathised with the person and went along with what they wanted to do. He then \’flooded\’ the person with too much of that behavior so that it naturally subsided into a re-balance of normality.
Comment by Rhonda LaShae — September 19, 2007 @ 7:42 am
Erickson was able to reflect back to each of the \”subjects\” with their own permission, which they were hiding/denying from themselves.
Comment by Shonda Taylor — September 19, 2007 @ 8:41 am
First, he listened to his patients and learned as much as he could about their core beliefs. Then he took the strongest emotion associated with those beliefs (in these cases fear) and empathized with his patients. His solution was to put them in a situation that persuaded them to face those fears and realize for themselves that they really had nothing fear in the first place.
Comment by Joseph Napolitano — September 19, 2007 @ 8:47 am
Dr. Erickson manipulated his patients into providing the desired results by having them create their own solution to a problem.
Comment by kevin — September 19, 2007 @ 9:36 am
Each person had learned through their own admission what they considered to be taboo, either directly or indirectly,then subliminally adapted to what was once considered abnormal or the impossible.
Comment by Joyce Zborower — September 19, 2007 @ 10:36 am
By not confronting these patients with the irrationality of their own behavior (which would have arroused anger and defensiveness) and by providing them with the opportunity to demonstrate to themselves the illogicalness of their beliefs, Dr Erikson allowed the subjects to evaluate their perceptions of the acceptability of their behavior. This allowed them to choose different, more rational and healthy behaviors.
\”Change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.\” Dr. Wayne Dyer
Comment by Kathy Molnar-Kimber — September 19, 2007 @ 11:30 am
He allowed them to keep thir viewpoint. He appeared to fully support them in their decision to \”continue in their belief\” to the extreme. When they began to finally see the absurdity of their belief, then he gave them a little bit of new information as their visions changed.
These stories remind me to help clients fully experience their pain in vivid detail. Then they can become aware that they need a different solution –namely your service or product.
Great job, Daniel!
Comment by C.S.Radhakrishnan — September 19, 2007 @ 12:02 pm
The Good Doctor realised the important fact that challenge to the obsessive thought helped only to harden it. He therefore chose to agree with the patients instantly in order to avoid confrontationist behavior and once the hardening trend was avoided , he slowly allowed them to realise the fact that the problem was in the way one looked at the situation in hand and that one could overcome that with a little effort on their part..
The principle can be effectively used in Marketing when long held views of certain communities are to be proved wrong and it needs to be done with empathy.
Comment by Pangenitor — September 19, 2007 @ 1:44 pm
Erikson used acceptance. the client knew at some level what was wrong and by accepting their skewed viewpoint, they responded with a reversal towards the \\\”correct\\\” behavior.
BTW, Erikson is one of the main people modeled to produce NLP.
Comment by Rod Newbound — September 19, 2007 @ 2:04 pm
He encouraged them to confront their obsession by focusing on it ion real time. The result was they reached the point where it was no longer an obsession.
Comment by Bob Oni — September 19, 2007 @ 2:06 pm
From a copywriting perspective, what Erickson did could be summarised as follows:~
1) Attract the subject by finding the common ground to work with, i.e. their condition.(A strong Headline)
2) Re-create the pain they are experiencing.(Body copy of your message where their emotion is fired up, and they \’sell\’ themselves on your product/solution).
3)Draw them towards your solution(Establish credibility)
4)Offer your solution
(Build up a desperate, rabid desire for your product)
Comment by Bob Clarke — September 19, 2007 @ 4:35 pm
Dr Erickson always \”joined\” his clients in their model of the world. Entered the conversation they were having in their head.
It\’s been said that the astute follower of Dr. Milton Erickson may notice as much as 45 percent of the processes he uses.
And I wonder, how many of your readers noticed another favorite you used in your title Daniel?
Comment by Jeff Campbell — September 19, 2007 @ 9:52 pm
Milton Erickson used in all three cases a technique known as \”Reframing\”.
This is where someone like Erickson changes the emotional viewpoint or setting in which a situation is experienced by placing it in another \”frame\” which suits the facts in a similar way.
It is commonly used by therapists to get patients out of a \”rut\” when they constantly hold a particular point of view which is causing them distress or harm.
For example the little girl biting her nails soon changed her point of reference from the it being cool to it becoming a chore. That was enough to get her to stop the nail biting.
The example of the two males who kept arguing that they were Jesus Christ uses reframing and also a hypnotherapy/NLP technique known as \”mirroring\” which basically means saying or doing exactly the same as the other person . Mirroring is often used to help obtain unconscious rapport with someone, although in this case it is used for something slightly different.
First the two guys mirrored each other, then Erickson mirrored John\’s delusional behaviour. John is then able to see by watching the other patient and Erickson that his behaviour is delusional. A strange but frequent behaviour then occurs as the patient takes on the mantle of therapist and the therapist becomes patient, thus being able to \”cure\” his delusional thinking.
Often many of us use these techniques in business and personal life without even knowing it.
Comment by Mac — September 20, 2007 @ 12:04 am
Erickson got people to know the truth that HE wanted them to know. Jesus said, \”you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.\”
Comment by Ken — September 20, 2007 @ 10:19 am
A person\’s reality is created by their own perception of it…he changed how they perceived each of their problems, thus changing their reality
Comment by Jason Crowe — September 20, 2007 @ 11:29 am
What I really see as it can be applied to copywriting was that the good DR. allowed each person to visualize the problem to the point that the client understood it to be a problem. We must show our prospects that they have the problem that we are trying to solve. This includes helping them to realize how bad the problem can be if not solved.
Comment by Ted Meloy — September 20, 2007 @ 6:13 pm
I believe that the good doctor employed the principle of illustrating the absurd with the absurd and thereby letting each individual see their own folly. This principle very definitely relates to copywriting in that a person convinced against his will is of the same mindset. It\\\’s all about being an inside job. (mindset)
Comment by Robert — September 26, 2007 @ 8:53 am
Daniel Levis
Im no big guy whose opinion counts. But
I think one of the biggest compliments one can give is -
If Clayton puts down his signature under this article
99% believe it\’s from him and love it.
Really Great stuff !
Robert
one new fan from you
from germany
Comment by John — September 27, 2007 @ 2:46 pm
[QUOTE]Each of us creates a representation of our world…If your headline and opening copy fail to instantly harmonize with that model, your copy will fall on deaf ears…To try and impose your own model of the world on another in an attempt to influence them doesn’t work… “Dr. Erickson always \\\”joined\\\” his clients in THEIR model of the world. Entered the conversation they were having in their head.”[/QUOTE]
But how do you know what their specific model is in the first place?
Comment by Daniel — September 27, 2007 @ 11:02 pm
Clue: Erickson as a child was almost completely paralyzed. All he could do was see and hear. To enter their world, watch and listen.
Comment by collis — October 22, 2007 @ 9:07 am
i want to know more